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times other kinds were used for show; but Ascham condemns
this custom entirely, saying, "That manye men which have
taken them up for gaynesse, hath layde them down agayne for
profit." The head of the arrow differed much from our modern
ones: that used in shooting at marks seems to me to have
been made somewhat larger than the end of the arrow, and
then to have been closed down to it, as we see the jewellers
close the cup in which a stone is set down to the stone; the
head by this means would somewhat resemble a
pine-apple, with a sharp, smooth top, but furrowed
longitudinally towards the base; on this account, Ascham
says, they were called "Hie-rigged, creased, or shouldered
heades, or silver-spoone heades, for a certain likeness such
heads have with the knob-ende of some silver spoones." He
adds, "These heades be good both to keepe a lengthe withall,
and also to perche a wind withall. To keepe a length
withall, because a man may certainly pull it to the
shouldering every shoote, and no farther; to perche a winde
withall, because the point from the shoulder forward
breaketh the weather, as all other sharpe things doo." For
war, he recommends sharp heads without any barb, as were
commonly used.
Having said thus much concerning the weapons of our
forefathers, it remains to say something concerning their
manner of handling them. The arrow was drawn, as we have
seen, to the head, and always to the ear, and not to the
breast, when they shot at pricks or short marks: when they
shot at long marks, or rovers, it was (on account of
the elevation then necessary) drawn to the breast. The
Archers did not wink with one eye, as gunner usually do, but
kept both open; nor did they look at their arrow, but at the
mark only. Ascham, with great humour, ridicules the bad and
awkward Archers of his time; but as his descriptions are
rather long, I shall omit them: the reader may, if he
pleases, consult the book, or take a view of a
bowling-green, where he will see (mutatis mutandis)
the self-same fund of ridicule.
To shew the great certainty of the bow, I shall quote
passages from our author, Ascham, which shew this weapon to
have been nearly as exact as our modern rifle-guns.
P.166. "Thus every Archer must know, not onlye what bowe and
shafte is fittest for him to shoote withall, but also what
time and season is best for him to shoote in."
P.168. "And as I toulde you before, in the hole year,
Springe-time, Summer, Faule of the leafe, and Winter; and in
one day, morninge, noontime, afternoone, and eventyde,
altereth the course of the weather, the pyth of the bowe,
the strength of the man. And in every one of these tymes the
weather altereth; as sometime hot, sometime windy, sometime
caulme, sometime cloudye, sometime cleare, somtime coulde
the wynde, sometime moistye and thicke, sometime drye and
smoothe. A little wynd in a moistye day stoppeth a shafte
more than a good whysking wynd in a cleare daye. Yea, and I
have seene when there hath bene no wynd at all, the ayre so
mistye and thicke, that both marks have bene wonderfull
great. And ones, when the plague was in Cambridge,
the downe wynd twelve score marke for the space of three
weekes, was thirteen score and a half; and into the wynd,
being not very great, a great deale above fourteen score."
P.172. "The lengthes or shortnesse of the marke is always
under the rule of the wether, yet somewhat there is in the
marke worthie to be marked of an Archer. If the prickes
stande on a streighte plaine ground, they be the best to
shoote at. If the marke stand on a hill-syde, or the ground
be unequal with pittes and turninge-wayes betwixt the
markes, a man's eye shall thincke that to be streighte which
is crooked."
P.170. "Besyde all these kindes of windes, you must take
heed if you see any cloude appear, and gather by little and
little against you, or else if a shower of raine be lyke
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